On the road to CamogliWent a man with seven wivesAnd every wife had seven sacksAnd in every sack there were seven cats.Between cats, sacks and wivesHow many were going to Camogli?

Camogli is famous in Italy for the nursery rhyme, Per la Strada che porta a Camogli. It is the Italian version of the English nursery rhyme, As I was going to St. Ives, in the form of a riddle.

The small fishing village of Camogli gets its name from Casa Mogli (house of wives) because fisherman were away at sea so long that their spouses were often alone. Camogli’s houses, painted in different colors, look out to the sea so that fisherman could recognize their homes while out fishing.

Camogli used to be a bustling seaport until the end of the 19th century. Known as the “city of a thousand white sails”, its harbor was packed full of tall ships. It’s famous fleet is said to have fought alongside Napoleon in the Battle of Trafalgar. When Charles Dickens visited Camogli, he said it was the “saltiest, roughest, most piratical little place”.

Today, although not as glamorous as Portofino, Camogli is perhaps just as pretty. Like many towns in Liguria, what makes Camogli’s houses so appealing to the eye is an optical illusion. Due to lack of resources and materials needed to frame windows with marble or stone carvings, artisans blended creativity and ingenuity to perfect the art of the trompe l’oeil frescoes. These lovely and ornate details on buildings, applied by the stroke of a brush, can sometimes look so real that you might need to run your hand against the wall to make sure they are indeed flat.

We were in Camogli for lunch then took a boat to the hamlet of San Fruttuoso. Its monastery sits at the top of a very tiny and lush bay that is only accessible by foot or boat. Placed about 17 meters into the sea, near the spot where the first Italian to use SCUBA gear died, is Il Cristo degli Abissi (Christ of the Abyss). This bronze statue depicts Christ with his hands and head raised toward the sky, as if offering a blessing.

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I’m Martine. Welcome to my site about the art of living well. I'm a global public health professional who loves to travel and cook and to me, cooking is one of the most interesting ways to bring the world home. It's also a wonderful metaphor for life as it requires an open mind, patience, flexibility and humility. I enjoy developing and sharing whole-food, plant-based recipes inspired by a love and appreciation of different cultures, healthy lifestyles, and cuisines from around the world. My greatest inspiration? My little guy you see in the photo above. I aspire to raise a happy, healthy and kind "petit" citizen of the world.